Storm's Coming Down
by Gallifrey Immigrant
Summary: The Doctor and Zoe walk out in the rain, and meets a mysterious man. (Part of a series of standalone short drabble stories set in my "Stories That Never Was" series.)


Rain was falling from the sky in almost impossible amounts. Actually, the Doctor knew it should be literally impossible—the planet's sky wasn't supposed to have enough moisture to support any rain. But the cold, wet fabric of his coat was still being drenched, anyway.

Zoe was faring even worse. A purple bodysuit is not meant for a rainy climate. If the Doctor had his way, he would have went into the TARDIS and got her an overcoat. But the TARDIS was being temperamental. Actually, it was being almost violent.

Travel had been going well. The Doctor had been puzzling over some odd readings from the ship, while Zoe and Jamie had been teasing each other as usual. Then the TARDIS began to make a horrendous ripping sound from its insides. It sounded almost like screaming.

"What's going on, my old friend?" the Doctor asked his ship. Zoe and Jamie began to look worried.

"Sounds like your ship needs a fixing," said Jamie.

"No, Jamie, this sounds like something else," said the Doctor. He opened up a panel below, and began fiddling with wires. Behind him, the walls of the TARDIS were beginning to glow blueish.

" Doctor, are you sure everything's alright?" said Zoe, peeking at the Doctor, whose face was wrinkled with concentration.

The Doctor, for his part, had been very confused. Nothing was wrong internally with the ship. There seemed to be a massive corruption growing within the TARDIS, but it wasn't coming from anyting to pilots had done. He could see the wires within the ship...morphing into some sort of fleshy materal, almost like the ship was fighting a conversion. But only a Time Lord possessed the power to affect the time ships at that deep of a level.

The Doctor, remembering the events, winced. Shame washed over him. Because had he not been so concerned about the workings of the TARDIS, he would have otised Jamie walking toward the blue-ish walls of the TARDIS.

"Your walls look different, Doctor," said Jamie. He reached his gloved hand to the wall, and said "And they feel warm."

The Doctor looked up, and his eyes went wide in horror.

"Stay away from those walls, Jamie!"

Jamie opened his mouth to answer. But it was too late.

The blue color leaped to Jamie's fingers. It snaked over his body, and wrapped itself around his vest. Zoe and the Doctor could only look in horror as Jamie was dragged into the wall.

Zoe went to charge in after Jamie, but the Doctor held her back.

"We have to save him!" said Zoe.

"There's nothing we can do for him now," said the Doctor with a crushed look on his face. Zoe stared at him with an almost betrayed look. The lights in the TARDIS shut off. When they turned back on, there was no trace of Jamie.

Now, the Doctor and Zoe were walking down a marshy land. It was, in the cruel way of the universe, Scotland they had landed in. The TARDIS had almost pushed them out, and the Doctor's key didn't seem to work. That had never happened to the man before. He had cajoled and demanded for the ship to open its doors. But it was if the ship's sentient mind couldn't even hear him.

And now the Doctor and Zoe were walking in a rainy, sparsely vegetated land. There were no outsiders around, besides a few goats. Both Zoe and the Doctor were silent.

Finally, Zoe said, without humor in her tone, "Are you really going to make me the one who breaks the silence?"

The Doctor said "I suppose so, Zoe."

"Is he okay?" Zoe asked.

The Doctor thought whether to give her the truth or something hopeful, and chose hope. Turning around and grinning, he said "I'm sure he'll be fine, Zoe. We have to worry about ourselves now."

Zoe looked away from the Doctor. Closely observing a baby mouse that had ran into her foot, Zoe said "You don't have to lie to me, Doctor. I'm a big girl."

The Doctor replied "Of course you are. It's just that, well, looking on the bright side is always good-"

Zoe snapped "Yes, well, that's all nice. But I live in facts. And it's a fact that you told mr that Jamie was sucked into a rip in time. You can't even account for what happenned to him. So if you don't even understand it, how can you say he's okay?"

"He can't."

Zoe and the Doctor looked up the plain. The man who spoke wore several scarfs, wrapped around his chest. Armor was under the scarfs, and hanging on his arm was a rather threatening rifle. A clearly anachronistic rifle.

"AK-47's? Those were phased out in my century for inefficiency," said Zoe.

"Hasn't even been made yet, according to the proper timeline," said the man.

The Doctor, looking worriedly at his gun, said "If you don't mind, how did you acquire that?"

"Oh, getting worried that I'll screw up the time-lines? Maybe accidentally cause the pre-apocalypse?" said the man. He let out a hollow laugh.

Zoe crossed her arms and said "What's so funny?"

Ignoring her, the man said "You never change, Doctor. To be honest, there's not much I do to time now; it already lost itself a long time ago."

The Doctor pursed his eyes together. Putting a hand to his chin, he said "What exactly do you mean?"

"You have no idea what's happened...and how wrong things are about to go. Tell me Doctor, does the name President Saxon mean anything?" said the man.

The Doctor shook his head.

"Then," , he said while taking off his hood,, "how about Koschei?"

The Doctor's eyes went wide.

"And since you still don't recognize me," said Adam, "that means things are worse than I expected."


End file.
